Ellis Short's chance to step up his interest in Sunderland has arisen only after foul financial winds buffeted Ireland in recent months. The billionaire is said to be ready to buy out the Drumaville consortium to take overall control of Sunderland. According to its most recent available accounts, the club has long-term debts of £45m, mostly secured against the Stadium of Light.

Drumaville was forced to inject nearly £9m in its first year of ownership to help cover a loss of £15.5m but such financial support would be hard to come by in future. That is because the Drumaville investors have seen their wealth slide following the implosion of the housing and credit bubbles in Ireland.

But his Sunderland shares remain a valuable asset. Last week a source close to Drumaville told this column that the Irish consortium would be willing to sell to Short, although any deal for the Premier League club "would depend on the terms". There has as yet been no formal approach from Short to Drumaville over the proposed buyout.

Fashionable move by Fifa

Fifa's commercial mastermind Jérôme Valcke has led football's world governing body into new territory as it branches out into clothing and accessories, striking a multimillion-pound deal with Global Brands Group. The eight-year licensing agreement will see Fifa gain a high-street presence for the first time. Global Brands Group, a company founded by two British entrepreneurs in 2003, already holds the licensing rights to the PGA Tour golf. It will now aim to exploit the instant recognition of Fifa with a nostalgia play. Look out for their Italia '90-branded clothing and World Cup Willy bags in the coming months.

City sharing the wealth

Birmingham City's promotion to the Premier League has come as a severe blow to Sheffield United and Reading but it is good news for other Championship clubs. The Blues' scheduled £11.2m Premier League parachute payment will instead be added to the top flight's solidarity payment to the Championship. Clubs not receiving a parachute payment next year will share the extra funds equally. It will effectively double the sum available to them to more than £1.1m each.

Trading places

While the takeover panel investigates the activities of the Arsenal shareholders Stan Kroenke and Danny Fiszman amid allegations they are acting in concert against its rules, Arsène Wenger might question the timing of the former's investments. Kroenke's most recent trade – with the Arsenal director, Richard Carr – came on Friday night, in the midst of a critical two-legged Champions League semi-final against Manchester United. And that followed his purchase of 8% of stock belonging to Fiszman last month, a deal that coincided with Arsenal's visit to Villarreal for the competition's quarter-final. There is much intrigue as to why Fiszman and Carr, both board members with years of service to the club, felt it necessary to add these off-the-field tensions at such sensitive times in Arsenal's season.

ECB plea with out-a-tout

The England and Wales Cricket Board has hired a team of private detectives to root out the touts who are scalping Ashes tickets. On the eve of the first Test of the summer, it has emerged the ECB is writing to the purchasers of tickets available on Ebay and other secondary markets telling them that these tickets will be cancelled under their terms and conditions. It has led to the withdrawal from sale of some 1,000 tickets and those touts who do not take them down are warned they will be committing a criminal offence. The ECB has also set up an Ashes "tout hotline", an initiative that seeks anonymous tip-offs about tickets that have reached the secondary market in contravention of their terms and conditions.